Group III-V semiconductor materials have been used in various electronic, optical, and optoelectronic devices. Examples of such devices may include metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), light emitting diodes (LEDs), or laser diodes (LDs), etc. Group III-V semiconductor materials (i.e., a combination of at least one Group III material and at least one Group V material) may be fabricated by depositing, or growing, a stack of films of group III-V semiconductor materials on an underlying substrate, such as a silicon substrate. The stack of films can form active layers having certain electrical or optical properties via strain or gap engineering. However, direct growth of certain group III-V compounds, such as InP or alloy of group III-V compounds, on a silicon substrate has been problematic due to heteroepitaxial issues such as lattice mismatch, thermal expansion mismatch, and differences in interfacial surface energy between group III-V compounds and the silicon substrate, which create dislocations that may propagate through the structure and degrade the device performance.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a process that can enable direct growth of group III-V compounds on silicon substrate with improved quality and performance of the device.